-Caveat Lector-
Among the Top Ten Censored Stories of 1996:
SHELL'S OIL, AFRICA'S BLOOD
In the wake of Nigeria's execution of nine environmental
activists, including Nobel Prize winner and leader of the
Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ken Saro-Wiwa,
evidence has indicated that Shell has fomented civil unrest in
Nigeria, contributed to unfair trials and failed to use its
leverage to prevent the unjustified executions.
The executed activists were involved in massive protests
against Royal Dutch/Shell Group because of the environmental
devastation it has caused--particularly in Southern Nigeria's
Ogoniland.
Since the executions, Shell has also managed to keep the
United States media from informing the public of its actions.
Nigeria's government, under the dictatorship of General Sani
Abacha, derives 90 percent of its foreign revenue from oil
exports. The United States, home of Royal Dutch's subsidiary
Shell Oil Company, located in Houston, Texas, imports almost 50
percent of Nigeria's annual oil production.
In October 1990, Nigerian villagers occupied part of a Shell
facility demanding compensation for the farm lands which had been
destroyed by Shell. A division manager at Shell Petroleum
Development Company called the Nigerian military for help. The
military forces then fired on the villagers killing some 80
people and destroying or badly damaging 495 homes. A Nigerian
judicial inquiry later concluded that the protest had been
peaceful. The MOSOP was formed after the massacre to continue
protests against Shell. And while Shell has denied having
anything to do with the recent executions, Dr. Owens Wiwa, Ken
Saro-Wiwa's brother, reported that on three occasions Brian
Anderson, the managing director of Shell Petroleum Development
Co. in Nigeria, offered to make a deal with Wiwa: Shell would try
to prevent the executions if the activists would call off their
protests. Wiwa refused, and Shell did not intervene.
After international pleas for Shell's intervention, Shell
claimed that it was not--and would not--become involved in
Nigeria's political affairs. Internal documents uncovered by
journalists and human rights groups contradict this claim.
According to a report by Andy Rowell in the Village Voice
(11/21/95), there is evidence that Shell has been bankrolling
Nigerian military action against protesters and that two key
prosecution witnesses admitted in sworn affidavits that they were
offered bribes by Shell to unjustly incriminate Saro-Wiwa in his
trial.
In response to these allegations, Shell has mounted an
international media campaign to combat negative publicity.
Amnesty International USA said the Houston Chronicle refused to
run an ad which questioned Shell's stance on human rights
violations in Nigeria and that three billboard companies,
including Gannett Outdoor Co. Inc., also declined to sell space
to the human rights organization.
Sources: SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, 2/7/96, "Shell Game,"
by Vince Bielski; TEXAS OBSERVER, 1/12/96, "Shell's Oil, Africa's
Blood," by Ron Nixon and Michael King; EDITOR & PUBLISHER, Date:
3/23/96, "Rejected Ad Flap," by M.L. Stein; WORLD WATCH, May/June
1996, "Dying for Oil," by Aaron Sachs; Jul/Aug 1996, "Eco-Justice
in Nigeria," by Chris Bright; BANK CHECK, Feb 1996, "IFC Pulls
Out of Shell Deal," by Andrea Durbin.
DEFORMING CONSENT: THE PR INDUSTRY'S SECRET WAR ON ACTIVISTS
Sources: COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY, Winter 1995/96, "The
Public Relations Industry's Secret War on Activists, " by John
Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, and EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL, Winter
1995-1996, "Public Relations, Private Interests," by John Stauber
and Sheldon Rampton.
This article exposes the multi-million dollar clients of
major public relations firms that are behind the creation of
false non-profit organizations, which target activists and
proposed legislation that threaten big business. Most of these
organizations focus on environmental, consumer and labor issues.
The strategies of these powerful media manipulators include the
defamation of activists, their ideas, and the deception of
American citizens.
Through the PR industry and the enormous financial resources
of their corporate clients, these organizations mobilize private
detectives, lawyers and undercover spies; influence editorial and
news decisions, launch phony "grassroots" campaigns and use
high-tech information systems to influence and manipulate public
opinion and policy. With its array of sophisticated persuasive
weaponry, the PR industry can out-maneuver, overpower and outlast
citizen reformers.
In one recent--and high-profile--example, the Health
Insurance Association of America (HIAA) not only supported but
created the Coalition for Health Insurance Choices (CHIC) to
defeat the Clinton administration's attempt at health care
reform. They utilized public opinion polling and lobbying
strength to pinpoint its campaign against mandatory health
alliances.
"Greenwashing" is the term now commonly used to describe the
ways that polluters employ deceptive PR to cultivate an
environmentally responsible public image while covering up their
abuse of the biosphere and public health. "Astroturf lobbying,"
a term coined by Lloyd Bentsen, is another new concept which
Bentsen describes as the "synthetic grassroots movements that now
can be manufactured for a fee." Campaigns & Elections magazine
defines "Astroturf" as a "grassroots program that involves the
instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in
which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of
deception are used to recruit them."
These anti-public-interest campaigns generate the false
impression of public support in the name of "citizen activism" to
promote the ideas and pursue the goals of corporate clients.
Consequently, dissenting voices have been muffled, scientifically
proven unhealthy chemicals and practices have been legalized, and
public opinion has been profoundly, yet quietly influenced.
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME: WHITEWASH AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Source: COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY, Summer 1996, "White-Collar
Crime: Whitewash at the Justice Department," by David Burnham.
While white-collar crime costs America 10 to 50 times more
money than street crime, the Justice Department continues to show
little interest in taking the problem seriously.
And while the statistics persistently underscore this
contradiction, business organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers continue
to claim the federal government restricts business with
unnecessary and heavy-handed regulations--and implore Congress to
scale back environmental, health and safety laws.
Based on the centralized records maintained by the
Department of Justice (DoJ), the data shows that when it comes to
white-collar crime, the federal government almost never brings
criminal charges against businesses.
Of the more than 51,000 federal criminal indictments in
1994, only 250--less than one-half of one percent--involved
criminal violations of the nation's environmental, occupational
health and safety, and consumer product-safety laws.
Given the huge number of corporations, the private
admissions by business lawyers that their organizations often
break the law, and a well-documented record of repeated
violations, the minuscule number of federal criminal allegations
hardly squares with the corporate view of business as the victim
of a federal government run amok.
The small number of individuals charged with criminal
violations is only one indication of the pro-business bias
revealed in the DoJ's own data. Even though Congress passed the
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970, the actual
impact of the law was greatly reduced by the insertion of
hard-to-enforce regulations and insufficient funds to provide an
effective force of well-trained and well-managed investigators.
And in spite of the law, the DoJ has almost always protected
businesses from criminal charges -- even those with corporate
executives who have knowingly exposed workers to conditions that
resulted in death.
In 1987 alone, 50-70,000 workers died prematurely from
on-the-job exposure to toxins--roughly three times the 21,500
people murdered in the same year. In the years between 1970 (when
OSHA was created) and 1992, 200,000 Americans died at work, a
significant number of which resulted from known negligence by the
employer. Nonetheless, in those 22 years, OSHA has referred 88
criminal cases to the DoJ, which prosecuted 25 and sent one
executive to jail. He served 45 days.
According to Barry Hartman, who was first deputy and then
acting assistant attorney general for the DoJ's environmental and
natural resources division, "environmental crimes are not like
organized crimes or drugs... There you have bad people doing bad
things. With environmental crimes you have decent people doing
bad things. You have to look at it this way."
NEW MEGA-MERGED BANKING BEHEMOTHS = BIG RISK
Source: MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, June 1996, "The Making of the
Banking Behemoths," by Jake Lewis.
1995 was a record year of bank mergers. Chase Manhattan and
Chemical bank combined to create the nation's largest bank, with
$300 billion in assets--while on the west coast, the merger of
First Interstate and Wells Fargo created a new giant with over
$100 billion in assets.
The massive consolidation of the nation's banking resources
has resulted in 71.5% of U.S. banking assets being controlled by
the 100 largest banking organizations, representing less than 1
percent of the total banks in the nation.
Under the Bank Merger and Bank Holdings Company Act, the
Federal Reserve is required, before approving any application of
a merger, to test how well the convenience and needs of the
public are being met by the merger. Critics charge that the
Federal Reserve Board is doing a disservice to the American
public by not applying this "public convenience and needs" test
to the wave of banking mergers--as required by the Bank Merger
and Bank Holding Company Acts. In light of this, analysts are
concerned that the growing giants of the banking industry will
"shift insurance risks to taxpayers, cost jobs, lead to increased
rates for bank customer service, make it harder to get loans and
lessen community access to bank branches."
The trend toward bigger banks is creating a system whereby
giant banking institutions are taking on "too big to fail"
status. Indeed, a failure of any one of these new giants would
have a devastating effect on the nation's financial health. And
with the Federal Reserve capping the amount that financial
institutions have to pay into the governments' bank insurance
fund at $25 billion, just 1.25 percent of deposits are now
insured. Consequently, any bailout of one of these new megabanks
would come directly from the pockets of taxpayers.
Studies have also found that banks in concentrated markets
tend to charge higher rates for certain types loans, and tend to
offer lower interest rates on certain types of deposits than do
banks in less concentrated markets. A 1995 study by the U.S.
Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Study of
Responsive Law showed that fees on checking and savings accounts
increased at twice the rate of inflation from 1993 to 1995 as
bank mergers moved forward.
Finally, the trend toward megabanks is closing out community
access and making it harder to get loans. In 1995, the Justice
Department ordered Wells Fargo to divest itself of 61 branches it
acquired through its merger with First Interstate to preserve
competition for certain types of lending. But the 61 branches
that Wells Fargo divested itself of, are being sold to Home
Savings and Loan of Los Angeles, which recently decided not to
continue its affordable housing lending. In a community where
affordable housing is vital to its stability, the decision of
Home Savings and Loan is very disturbing.
CASHING IN ON POVERTY
Sources: THE NATION, 5/20/96, "Cashing in on Poverty," by
Michael Hudson; THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/15/96, "Bordering on
scandal what some pay for credit," by Michael Hudson, excerpted
from the book, "Merchants of Misery: How Corporate America
Profits From Poverty," Edited by Michael Hudson (Common Courage
Press, 1996).
Corporate America is in the poverty business and making huge
profits from the destitute in the United States. Sixty million
poor people without bank accounts or access to competitive-rate
loans must instead use pawn shops, check-cashing outlets,
rent-to-own stores, finance companies and high-interest mortgage
lenders. These businesses generate yearly revenues of $200 to
$300 billion and are increasingly owned or subsidized by Wall
Street giants such as American Express, Bank America, Citibank,
Ford, NationsBank, and Western Union.
While affluent credit card holders can pay as little as six
to eight percent annual interest, low-income people are paying as
much as 240% for a loan from a pawnbroker, 300% for a finance
company loan, and even an amazing 2,000% for a fast "payday" loan
from a check-cashing outlet. Large corporations use sophisticated
marketing strategies to lure in new customers and increase their
business. The overall number of check-cashing outlets in this
country has nearly tripled to 5,500 since the late 1980s, and
rent-to-own stores have skyrocketed from 2,000 to 7,500 in the
same period. With a typical loan rate of 200%, Cash America's
chain of pawn shops has quickly grown to 325 in the United States
and expanded abroad with thirty-four outlets in the United
Kingdom and ten in Sweden.
The main investor in America's $4.5 billion rent-to-own
market is Thorn EMI PLC, a British conglomerate. American Express
finances ACE Cash Express, a national chain of 630 check-cashing
outlets. Charges average three to six percent of each check's
value. Cash America, the country's largest chain of pawnshops,
is bankrolled by NationsBank and traded on the New York Stock
Exchange.
Even though many of us think of Ford Motor Corporation in
terms of its automobile sales, their Fortune 500 status has
actually been achieved through financial services holdings. In
1993, three-fifths of Ford's earnings came from car loans,
mortgages and consumer loans. Associates Corporation of North
America is a Ford subsidiary targeting low-income, blue-collar
and minority consumers. In 1994, it financed $18.5 billion in
mortgages and consumer loans and earned just under $1 billion in
pre-tax profits. Stock analysts estimate that used-car loans for
people with shaky credit now top $60 billion a year. Non-bank
finance companies like Ford and defense contractor Textron make
small loans at rates as high as 300% in some states.
Along with astronomically high charges, many low-income
consumers are also victimized by additional hidden fees, forged
loan documents, and harassing collection tactics. And unless
there is increased government protection for the destitute or a
growth in alternative non-profit financial institutions, big
business will continue to expand these practices.
FACING FOOD SCARCITY
Sources: WORLD WATCH, Nov/Dec 1995, "Facing Food Scarcity,"
May/Jun 1996, "Japanese Government Breaks With World Bank Food
Forecast," by Lester R. Brown.
The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture released projections in
late December 1995 which show a doubling of world grain prices by
2010. The world prices for wheat and rice will exceed 2 times
that of the base year of 1992. Around the same time, World Watch
published an article, "Facing Food Scarcity," which supports the
Japanese Ministry of Agriculture claim, and according to the
World Agricultural Outlook Board, the world's stock of rice,
wheat, corn, and other grains have fallen to their lowest level
in two decades.
These projections differ sharply from that of the World
Bank, which has stuck with its projection of continuously
declining grain prices over the same period.
The Japanese analysis, along with the World Watch article
take into account past experience with biological growth in
finite environments (examples include soil erosion, increased
population, and land dehydration) while the economists who are
responsible for projecting supply and demand of agriculture
commodities for the World Bank and at the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) do not.
As the world population continues to grow, more and more
water must be diverted from crop irrigation to cities for direct
consumption.
This, along with the loss of agricultural land to housing,
creates a drastic imbalance between the amount of people, and the
food production necessary to feed them. The economically
integrated world of the late nineties is moving into uncharted
territory, facing a set of problems quite different in nature
from those faced in the past.
The food shortage will become even more acute in light of
the conclusions of the recent World Food Summit in November 1996.
Convened by the FAO, the first summit in 22 years decided that
poor countries will be responsible for feeding their own people,
without the aid of wealthier nations. But while population is
soaring, especially in poor nations, food aid to poor countries
is dropping by about half, and the number of hungry people will
continue to grow (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/18/96).
With the World Bank and FAO continuing to project surplus
capacity and declining real prices, it is difficult to mobilize
support for continued investment in agriculture or for the kinds
of social services such as family planning that could help
stabilize population growth.
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